Really struggling to hold FC this year

ttroglio

Active member
Jul 14, 2019
28
Saint Louis, MO
Pool Size
12500
Surface
Fiberglass
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Pentair Intellichlor IC-20
Opened pool on May 4th. Pics of that are here;


FC: 0, CC: 0, PH: 7.3, TA: 40, CH: 300, CYA: 0, Salt: 1400

Started SLAM on May 5th and keep up w/ it best I can but work and travel gets in the way. No one else here to maintain, unfortunately. Pool clear by the 9th but can't check levels due to travel. Pool temps are low to mid 70s.

Turned on my heater May 17th and set to 85. On May 20th I get what appears to be black algae (pics below) but it is stuff I cannot gather up well to verify on a paper sheet. Been scrubbing w/ SS brush since this time and raise FC levels. to hold between high recommended level and SLAM. I just picked the 1/2 way point as a target. My salt gen is currently off.

Doesn't seem to be clearing up and my work schedule right now is such that I can't be here monitoring it all the time. Still chewing thru FC at a high rate even though the water is very clear. FC at 630pm yesterday was 21. FC this morning at 650am was 16.5. So a loss of 4.5 overnite.

All numbers at 630pm yesterday and water is very clear. I was in the pool yesterday scrubbing all surfaces, even removing drain grates and cleaning in there.
FC: 21.0, CC: 0.5, PH: 8.0, TA: 125, CH: 500, CYA: 75

Should I attempt to keep the high FC for longer or just move to a SLAM? I'm off till Tuesday for the holiday and can spend some time monitoring and adjusting.

Thanks.
 

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Last edited:
Your overnight loss may be skewed some since you had a couple of hours of daylight after your evening reading and before your morning reading. Don’t know what your shading situation is.

If there is a contaminant in the pool, increasing to SLAM level will accelerate the clean up.
 
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Your overnight loss may be skewed some since you had a couple of hours of daylight after your evening reading and before your morning reading. Don’t know what your shading situation is.

If there is a contaminant in the pool, increasing to SLAM level will accelerate the clean up.
I don't have shade until near sundown, unfortunately.

Doing more reading on TFP and wondering if this is not algae, but stains. Was reading about Clorox salt. I used that brand this season. Still have two bags left. The areas I'm seeing are the usual areas I drop in salt. Guess I'll read up and see what I can do to prove that out. Will also look into Morton's Salt for the future.

I started a SLAM today as my FC readings were;

650am: 16.5
1120am: 14.0
1125am: add 240oz 10% bleach
520pm: 12.5
530pm: add 272oz 10% bleach
700pm: 28.0
700pm: add 16oz bleach

Pool math indicates slam is 29 so that is what I'm trying to maintain. The water is very clear so not exactly sure what is going on here. I'll check it after dark tonight and then again before first light tomorrow.
 
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